]]>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today delivered an eight-hour speech in opposition to a budget bill, urging her fellow members to find a permanent solution to immigration debates that have left individuals and families across the country anxious about their futures. In a record-breaking address being called a “DACA-buster,” Pelosi used her power as a party leader in the chamber to elevate the voices of young immigrants fighting to stay in the country they call home.

From 10:04 a.m. to 6:10 p.m., Pelosi read testimony from DREAMers—undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children and were enrolled in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Pelosi wore four-inch heels and drank only water during the eight-hour speech. According to the House Historian’s office, it was the longest speech in floor history.

Throughout, Twitter users sent Pelosi messages of gratitude, encouragement and support with the hashtag #GoNancyGo.

Just seeing all of these #GoNancyGo messages. Truly very moving. But let's not lose focus of who really matters here. Thank you to our #Dreamers. And thank you to your parents for allowing us all the pleasure of having you be a part of our American family every day. #DREAMActNow

President Trump suspended the DACA program in September, instructing Congress to come up with a path forward for the program within six months. That program’s fate is now uncertain, as are the legal protections offered for participating; now, many DREAMers fear deportation to countries they’re unfamiliar with.

Senate Democrats brokered a deal with Republicans to avert a government shutdown earlier this month that was contingent on legislation addressing DACA being considered in the chamber. Pelosi is demanding the same now of Speaker Paul Ryan. The short-term government funding bill passed as a result of the initial compromise expires at midnight Thursday—and without Democratic support, the bill being put forth now in the House to extend it won’t pass.

“We have to be strong as a country,” Pelosi told her colleagues from the floor, “to respect the aspirations of people who are our future. The young people are our future and these dreamers are part of that. They’ve been enriched… by the greatness of our country. Our plea to the speaker is for us, for ourselves, to honor the values of our founders.”

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/02/07/go-nancy-go/feed/0Feminists Across the Country Talked Back During Trump’s State of the Unionhttp://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/31/feminists-talked-back-trump-state-union/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/31/feminists-talked-back-trump-state-union/#commentsWed, 31 Jan 2018 21:47:36 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=125355Trump's speech was notably void of references to women's rights—but across the country, women were listening, watching and fighting back.

]]>On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump gave his first-ever State of the Union address. Between hollow calls for political unity and revisionist retellings of American history, Trump took the opportunity to tout the few political victories of his presidency—bragging about the devastating repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and his stocking of federal courts with conservative judges.

Trump’s speech was notably void of references to women’s rights. The National Women’s Law Center tweeted last night that the word “woman” appeared only once in his address, adding: “We know where we stand in Trump’s vision of our union.” The president’s attempt to minimize his administration’s attacks on women, people of color, immigrants and other communities, however, fell short—because across the country, women were listening, watching and fighting back.

On Capitol Hill, some women lawmakers skipped the speech entirely. Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) were among the lawmakers who didn’t attend the address. Their absence was meant to serve as a rebuke to the Trump administration, as well as his divisive and regressive agenda.

“I don’t trust him, I don’t appreciate him and I wouldn’t waste my time sitting in that House listening to what he has to say,” Waters said on MSNBC. “He does not deserve my attention.” Jayapal, in a Medium post explaining her decision, said she refused “to dignify a president who has used the platform of the Oval Office to fan the flames of racism, sexism and hatred.”

Other lawmakers, however, chose to push back in person—and in the company of activists and everyday Americans who served as reminders of the ways Trump’s agenda has set much progress off-course.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) brought San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who was one of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration’s failure to provide adequate aid to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Months later, much of Puerto Rico remains without power; while Cruz has persistently pursued solutions in the months since the devastating disaster, Trump’s administration has served up little more relief than personal insults and sweeping derogatory statements towards the Americans on the island. California Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) brought a young DREAMer and immigration activist named Denea Joseph as her guest, shining a light on the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda that has left those protected by the Obama-era DACA program uncertain of their legal status and living in fear of deportation. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) invited family members of immigrants who had been deported—including Cindy Garcia, whose 39-year-old father was recently deported after living in the United States for more than 30 years.

“The Garcia family’s story is heartbreaking and infuriating,” Dingell said in a statement. “It is both a symptom of a long-broken immigration system and a new, rash immigration policy that does not recognize the difference between a hard-working family man and a criminal. This must change.”

Under the Trump administration, ICE raids and legislative attacks on legal immigrants have escalated, all while the Justice Department has issued threats and warnings to sanctuary cities across the country. In his speech that evening, Trump spoke about his proposed immigration plan, which offered some concessions to DREAMers but still demanded $25 billion for the president’s proposed border wall. Earlier this month, Trump expressed distaste for immigrants from non-white majority countries, which he referred to as “sh-tholes” and proposed that the United States instead accept more immigrants from countries “like Norway.”

Lawmakers in attendance also showed solidarity with survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation during Trump’s address by wearing all black—an action echoing the same fashion-centered approach to the #MeToo moment undertaken by celebrities at this year’s Golden Globes.

After Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) called on her colleagues to take part, a massive #SOTUBlackout shaped up. In their quiet protest, the lawmakers participating not only stood with survivors and brought attention to the epidemic of sexual harassment, but also reminded guests of the more than 15 women who have publicly accused the president of sexual misconduct. Trump has dismissed their claims as “fake news,” calling the women who have come forward “liars.”

It has become crystal clear that sexual harassment is rampant throughout all industries in our country. So to show solidarity with all workers who have experienced sexual harassment, I’m wearing black to the #SOTU and saying #TimesUP. #SOTUBLACKOUTpic.twitter.com/cutVORNNzE

Across the country, activists and feminist celebrities also talked back to Trump at parallel addresses meant to focus on resisting his agenda.

In New York, actors Cynthia Nixon and Rosie Perez, comedian Kathy Najimy and singer Andra Day joined forces with organizers and advocates at the People’s State of the Union, calling for unity and action in advance of the upcoming 2018 elections.

“We have to love our undocumented brothers and sisters,” Paola Mendoza, artistic director at Women’s March, said at the event. “We have to love our trans communities. We have to love our Indigenous people. We have to love the women who have said #TimesUp and #MeToo. We have to love our planet.”

The speakers also highlighted the power of women to change the nation’s course in November. “Radical women are used to pushing boulders up hills,” Najimy said. “Women by the millions are rising up and demanding change.”

In Washington, D.C., movement leaders struck a similar tone during the State Of Our Union address. National Domestic Workers Alliance Executive Director Ai-jen Poo, Me Too founder Tarana Burke, Mónica Ramirez of the National Farmworker Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe Finkbeiner and Arisha Hatch of Color of Change were among those participating in the event, broadcast live during Trump’s own speech, in a push to advocate for policy solutions and mobilize women voters.

“2018 is a critical year for women,” Poo said in a statement before the address. “We have already demonstrated that we are willing to carry more than our share of the weight in defending our democracy. It’s now time for action and solutions — on everything from sexual assault and harassment to low wages and pay equity, from elder care and childcare to paid family leave.”

“We are coming together to give the State of Our Union,” Finkbeiner added in the statement. “We take this unprecedented step because President Trump and so many of our political leaders are completely out of step with women, who are 51 percent of our population; and this is hurting our mothers, sisters, children, economy and our country. Our safety and basic rights—including access to health care, to a living wage, and to the supports we need to care for our children—are under direct attack. For low-income women, women of color and immigrant women, the situation is even worse. Make no mistake: The fight for women’s rights is the fight for our nation’s future.”

Trump’s administration, and his first year as president, were marked by a surge in feminist activism and women’s political participation. After his victory, record numbers of women expressed an interest in running for office; in the 2017 elections, they took center stage—and swept it. The historic Women’s March movement, launched around the world with at least 999 marches on all six continents the day after his inauguration, re-invigorated the fight for women’s political and social equality and ushered in a year of “resistance” to the Trump agenda led, by and large, by women.

“The racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism and white nationalism that defines Trump’s administration, and is reinforced in much of his State of the Union speech, still exists everywhere—but so do we. And we will challenge it wherever it exists, from the highest seat of power to local policies and decision-making,” Women’s March said in a statement after Trump’s address. “It’s time that we channel the energy and activism into tangible strategies and concrete wins in 2018. The rise of the woman is the rise of the nation and we are the leaders that we’ve been waiting for.”

Kylie Cheung is an editorial intern at Ms. She writes about feminism in politics and pop culture with a focus on reproductive justice. Her work appeared in Rewire, Teen Vogue, The Mary Sue and Mediaite, among others.

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/31/feminists-talked-back-trump-state-union/feed/2We Heart: Malala Talking Back to Trump at the World Economic Forumhttp://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/25/heart-malala-talking-back-trump-world-economic-forum/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/25/heart-malala-talking-back-trump-world-economic-forum/#respondFri, 26 Jan 2018 00:41:20 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=125155Malala Yousafzai has a message for Donald Trump—and she delivered it while she was on stage at the World Economic Forum today.

]]>Donald Trump arrived in Davos, Switzerland today for the World Economic Forum, joined by members of his cabinet. Thus far, he has used his time at the convening of global leaders to push his so-called “America First” agenda—one that appears to be in stark contrast to the event’s theme, “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”—and doubled-down on threats to cut humanitarian aid to Pakistan.

Education activist Malala Yousafzai, however, used her time in Switzerland to push for education equity, and particularly for girls’ education around the world—and push back on Trump’s rhetoric around women’s rights. When the 20-year-old Nobel Prize winner was asked what her message to “someone like” Donald Trump would be, she challenged world leaders like him to do better—and encouraged women to continue to stand on the front lines fighting for gender equality until they do.

“I just get so disappointed to see that people are, at these high positions, that they talk against women, they will not accept women as equal, they harass women,” she said, “and it is just shocking, for a second, to believe that this is actually happening. And I hope that women stand up and they speak out against it. And I hope that people who are involved in such shameful things think about their own daughters, their own mothers and their own close female relatives and just imagine for a second that—can they let it happen to their daughters, to their sisters, to their mothers. And I don’t think they would accept that.”

One year after the historic Women’s Marches of 2017, feminists once again demanded—in numbers too large to ignore—that lawmakers and politicians hear our voice and heed our call for equality. Ms. readers and activists shared photos of marches across the country on Instagram with the #MsMarches hashtag—here are some of their views from the front lines.

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/22/photos-ms-marches/feed/0Yours in Sisterhood: The Film Connecting Feminists Through Vintage Letters to Ms.http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/18/connecting-feminists-across-generations-through-letters-to-ms/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/18/connecting-feminists-across-generations-through-letters-to-ms/#commentsThu, 18 Jan 2018 19:54:20 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=124972Irene Lusztig's film "Yours in Sisterhood" is a collective portrait of feminism across four decades—built uniquely through time travel and postage stamps.

]]>Inside the boxes, Irene Lusztig found secrets and stories kept safe for forty years. Inside each envelope was the voice of a woman she had never met, yet in their midst she felt solidarity and sisterhood. Nearly a half-century after they were sent, she opened and read thousands of letters sent by readers to Ms. during its first decade on newsstands—and discovered, in the process, how interconnected feminists could remain across long stretches of time.

Among the correspondence was a 1973 letter from an angry woman forbidden to wear a pantsuit to work, a 1975 letter from a woman who left her family life behind to find herself and a 1976 letter from a teenager wherein she comes out for the very first time. “Collectively,” Lusztig wrote on the film’s website, “the letters feel like an encyclopedia of both the 70s and the women’s movement–an almost literal invocation of the second-wave feminist slogan ‘the personal is political.'”

Lusztig, an award-winning feminist filmmaker, archival researcher and professor, used the mostly-unpublished letters, stored at the Schlesinger Library, to connect over 300 women from across the country to their feminist co-conspirators across generations. The film for which that process gave way, Yours in Sisterhood, is a collective portrait of feminism across four decades—built uniquely through time travel and postage stamps.

For the project, Lusztig took the letters on the road and took them home—traveling for over two years to 32 states with a camera and portable teleprompter to return to the cities where they were written and record a belated response from a feminist stranger. Participants in each city read a letter from their hometown sent nearly a half-century earlier on camera and then engaged in a dialogue with the original sender in a response recorded live.

Lusztig also found five of the original letter writers—women who had the rare opportunity to see correspondence long since surrendered to the postal service decades earlier and in a much different world. In the film, one woman named Yvonne revisits her first-ever letter to Ms., which sparked years of correspondence between her and Ms. editor Valerie Monroe. In her initial letter, Yvonne declared her intentions to build a cabin and live mostly alone in the forest. Forty years later, she read that letter on the steps of her cabin.

Forty years later, Lusztig has finally located the feminist communities and counterparts Ms. readers sought and fostered in their letters to editors and staff. Four decades after the launch of a magazine that finally gave voice to the women’s movement, the stories and struggles of Ms. readers are now building bridges between feminist history and the feminist future.

“I’ve filmed readings with people of all ages, gender identities, shapes, colors and backgrounds on both coasts, in the Midwest, the Rockies and the South, in remote rural areas and major cities,” Lusztig wrote to supporters. “Along the way, I’ve built an incredible network of readers and supporters. Filming these conversations with strangers alongside the election, its aftermath, the #MeToo movement and much more, this project has felt increasingly timely and resonant—the stakes for how we create conversations about feminism right now are higher and more urgent than ever.”

]]>In a recent opinion piece for The New York Times, Carol Cohn, director of the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, examines the dangers of “mixing masculinity and missiles.”

At a time when the U.S. has minimized its diplomatic operations and stripped the State Department of its commitments to diversity, the President has managed to isolate our allies and anger hostile powers. Most notably, he has traded many (insulting) words with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, with his latest containing innuendo so clear it couldn’t pass for clever.

Donald Trump, Cohn explains, has only increased the urgent need for more women’s voices and feminist perspectives at peace-building tables and in war rooms—but a heightened awareness of the ways in which sexism and toxic masculinity shape issues of security doesn’t mean those problems aren’t longstanding.

President Trump makes the job of a feminist security analyst almost too easy. No subtle teasing out of subtexts required with this guy.

Something seemed to click for people across the political spectrum this week, even among those least inclined to see the world through a gendered lens: When Mr. Trump tweeted, “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” the nuclear saber-rattling at Kim Jong-un of North Korea sounded a lot like, well, penis-measuring.

Sad. But significant? From most commentators, the response has been an eye-rolling dismissal of Mr. Trump’s tweet as “juvenile”—yet one more impulsive, impolitic, dangerous and unpresidential act by a president like no other. But methinks not only that the president doth protest too much about his “Nuclear Button,” but also that many commentators are still missing the point. This is not simply a trivial, if embarrassing, sideshow.

Ideas about masculinity and femininity matter in international politics, in national security and in nuclear strategic thinking. Mr. Trump—with his fragile ego and his particularly obsessive concern with his reputation for manliness—may have brought these dynamics to the surface, but they have been there all along, if in less crude and lurid ways.

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/11/masculinity-missiles-donald-trump/feed/0March With the Ms. Community!http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/09/march-ms-community/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/09/march-ms-community/#respondWed, 10 Jan 2018 02:00:32 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=124817We've launched a Ms. Marches Facebook group—a community space where our members and readers can learn more about marches, rallies and protests near them and meet up with other feminists there!

One year after the historic Women’s Marches, hundreds of Women’s Marches are again being planned across the country for the weekend of January 20. We encourage you to take the streets and participate—and we want to help you find other feminists to make noise with, too. That’s why we’ve launched the Ms. Marches Facebook group, a community space where Ms. readers can learn more about marches, rallies and protests near them—and meet up with other feminists there!

We want to help Ms. readers and members—activists like you—tap into the feminist communities in their area. After you join the group, you can share your local Women’s March event or find someone else who has—and from there, you can form delegations of Ms. community members and even figure out a meeting place. (The fun doesn’t end after the Women’s Marches, either, nor is it limited to them—share any, every and all events you find to spread the word and find your fellow feminists!)

We knew going into 2017 that we would face challenges, but from the Women’s Marches to the explosion of the #MeToo movement, feminists have amplified our voices and embraced our momentum—declaring with full force that women will not be silenced and we will not go back. In 2018, with an election season in full swing, we must also mobilize the largest women’s vote ever. The march to the polls starts now—take the first step with us. Join the Ms. Marches Facebook community. (And invite your friends to join, too!)

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/09/march-ms-community/feed/0Women Rise Up (Again)http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/13/women-rise-up-again/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/13/women-rise-up-again/#respondWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:39:59 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=124336If only men had voted in Alabama last night, Roy Moore would be a Senator-Elect.

]]>Doug Jones scored an inspiring win last night against Republican Roy Moore in an Alabama senate race, and it was women voters—especially African American women voters—who spoke unequivocally at the polls and carried him to victory.

“Once again,” Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, said in a statement, “we see a huge gender gap, with more women voting for Jones than men.” A gender gap of 15 percent divided the two major-party candidates, with 57 percent of women and 42 percent of men voting for Jones. It was African American women’s votes that drove the gap, according to polling data from Edison Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other media organizations. African American women nearly unanimously supported Jones, who won 98 percent of their votes, and turned out in numbers rivaling those of the 2008 presidential election. Jones also won 60 percent of young voters, whose turnout increased by 24 points over 2014 (the last statewide race in a non-presidential election year) and 45 percent of college-educated white women.

“Turn out is everything,” Smeal added. “The amazing African American vote, despite all of the obstacles, and college students helped determine the outcome.” If only whites had voted or if only men had voted in Alabama on December 12, Roy Moore would be a Senator-Elect.

Another telling gender gap impacted the election: Last month, several women came forward about their experiences being stalked and assaulted by Moore when he was a District Attorney in his thirties and they were teenage girls. Moore and his supporters attempted to use sexist smears to discredit his victims, but the effort failed—because 57 percent of women voters and 42 percent of men polled believed them. “The people of Alabama have spoken loud and clear,” Smeal said. “A grown man who preys on teenage girls is not a leader, he is a predator.”

Jones and Moore faced off in the special election campaign to fill now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former seat in Congress—which Sessions had held and won as a Republican for 20 years. Moore, who was removed twice from his post while serving as a state Supreme Court Justice, once for refusing to take down a hanging copy of the 10 Commandments in his government office, spoke nostalgically about slavery and displayed contempt for the LGBT community on the campaign trail. Jones, an attorney known best for prosecuting two of the Ku Klux Klansmen who bombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, killing four girls, ran as a pro-choice Democrat.

“Roy Moore wasn’t the first racist, unqualified misogynist to run for office, and he likely won’t be the last,” Smeal said in her statement. “But a clear message has been sent to the United States Congress, and the President of the United States: The American people are demanding a political and cultural change. Women and girls deserve to be heard and respected. We will not be silenced and we will not go back.”

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/13/women-rise-up-again/feed/0Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is “Feminism”http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/12/merriam-websters-word-year-feminism/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/12/merriam-websters-word-year-feminism/#respondTue, 12 Dec 2017 23:36:19 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=124321According to Merriam-Webster, lookups for "feminism" increased 70 percent in 2017—spiking during the Women's Marches, the release of the Handmaid's Tale and Wonder Woman and the launch of the re-invigorated #MeToo movement.

According to Merriam-Webster, lookups for “feminism” increased 70 percent in 2017, and spiked with each triumph for the movement we saw this year. Lookups spiked after the Women’s March movement took the country—and the entire world—by storm, making noise on every continent in at least 999 marches across the globe. Lookups spiked after Hulu released The Handmaid’s Tale, an eerily-timed re-iteration of Margaret Atwood’s seminal warning of the dangers that attacks on women’s rights mean for entire societies and democracies. Lookups spiked when Wonder Woman marched across a battlefield and broke box office records.

Merriam-Webster uses the same definition of feminism that guides us here at Ms.: “the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” That definition is also the rallying cry of our publisher, the Feminist Majority Foundation.

FMF launched in 1987 with a name that was both a consciousness-raiser and a hell-raiser. 30 years ago, using the “F-word” was no small matter; now, the term—and its namesake movement—are more popular than ever. 60 percent of women and 33 percent of men in the U.S. identify as feminists or strong feminists, according to an FMF poll.

]]>http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/12/merriam-websters-word-year-feminism/feed/0We Can’t Achieve Peace and Security Until We End Domestic Violencehttp://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/01/cant-achieve-peace-security-end-domestic-violence/
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2017/12/01/cant-achieve-peace-security-end-domestic-violence/#commentsSat, 02 Dec 2017 00:46:57 +0000http://msmagazine.com/blog/?p=124125Domestic violence is a very present danger to women in times of conflict. That must be reflected in our policies and strategies to achieve peace.

]]>When advocates talk about violence against women and its intersections with national security, much attention is paid to rape in times of war and as a tool of war—practices which are obviously abhorrent, and must be stopped. But other forms of gendered violence impact women’s security as well, including domestic violence—which may be a more present danger to women in times of conflict.

Government leaders and thousands of activists marched to the Parliament House in Papua New Guinea to call for an end to violence against women in 2016. (Johaness Terra for UN Women / Creative Commons)

Michelle Sieff, a consultant on violence against women, conflict and development for organizations like the World Bank and USAID, implores the national security set around the globe to consider domestic violence in their work—and reminds them what’s at risk when they don’t—in a new piece for Foreign Policy magazine.

The World Health Organization estimates that almost one-third of women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner. And 38 percent of female murders are committed by a boyfriend or spouse. By comparison, sexual violence done by armed groups is much less prevalent. According to the best available data set on sexual violence in armed conflict, between 1989 and 2009—a 20-year time span that included the civil wars in the Balkans, central Africa, and West Africa—7,331 incidents of sexual violence by armed groups were recorded (against both male and female victims).

Even in some conflict settings, new research suggests that the frequency of sexual violence by armed actors is significantly less than that by intimate partners, acquaintances, and other caregivers. According to a survey of 12 rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire during the 2000–2007 conflict, only four percent of women endured forced sex by perpetrators other than intimate partners. Another survey of 15 conflict-affected municipalities in Colombia found that the reported rate of rape by family members was triple the reported rate by combatants. Finally, a recent study of violence against adolescent girls in refugee camps in Ethiopia and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, found that the most frequently reported perpetrators were intimate partners, followed by caregivers or relatives.

New research also suggests that intimate partner violence may be a predictor of other forms of mass violence, conflict and state insecurity. According to one study, in more than half of U.S. mass shootings between 2009 and 2016, the male killer shot an intimate partner or another family member. Both the 2017 Texas church shooter and the man who killed 49 people at an Orlando, Florida nightclub in 2016 had histories of domestic violence. In the 2012 book Sex and World Peace, the scholar Valerie M. Hudson and her colleagues used quantitative measures and found a statistically significant relationship between the physical security of women, which included measures of domestic violence, and the overall peacefulness of states.

“Any discussion of peace and security must begin to account for the security of women in their homes,” she posits of activists. “It is not enough to include women at the conflict resolution table if the agenda continues to exclude violence perpetrated by intimate partners.”